We commend the motivation and commitment to encourage and promote women’s participation on the development and use of the Internet. However, as advocates and activists working on women’s rights in Indonesia, and as participants of the Internet Governance Forum 2013, we are writing to register our concern on your “Miss Internet Bali” initiative as a flagship programme under APJII to promote safe, healthy and productive use of the Internet amongst Indonesian society. We further state our protest on the promotion of this programme in conjunction with the Internet Governance Forum 2013

The decision to run the programme in a format that is strongly reminiscent of beauty pageants positions women as passive objects of beauty rather than active, diverse and empowered citizens and users of the Internet who shape and define the world we live in. This can have the effect of perpetuating gender stereotypes that act to further marginalize and discriminate women instead of promoting their rights and concerns, which runs completely contrary to the stated objectives of your programme.

The approach of this programme also runs a great risk of reducing women’s contribution to the development and use of the internet into becoming simply a marketing ploy and further communicates the message of the commodification of women’s images and representation in the shaping information societies. This is discriminatory.

The Internet Governance Forum is a United Nations mandated space and as such, we expect and demand adherence to respectful and non-discriminatory standards of behavior. As participants of the Internet Governance Forum 2013 who are working to advance gender equality and the active participation of women in Internet governance policy dialogue and processes, we see this as a huge step back taken by organisers in this process.

We strongly recommend that the commitment to recognise and promote women’s participation on the development and use of the internet be conceptualized and implemented with the empowerment and human rights of women as the framework instead. For example, by engaging in the Gender Dynamic Coalition, putting forward issues for women’s rights and leadership in internet governance, and supporting the full diversity of women’s leadership.